Category Archives: Chelsea

Quite what the scouts dispatched from Barcelona to this corner of south-west London, charged with casting their eyes over next week’s opponents, could hope to glean from this mismatch is anyone’s guess.

Chelsea barely broke into a sweat in sweeping aside Hull City to secure their passage into the FA Cup quarter-finals. This was a stroll. Maybe the best the scouting reports might confirm is that the Premier League side will be fresh next week.

Chelsea’s hopes of upsetting Barcelona rest on Belgian but he may wonder if his best chance of achieving greatness is to move

This week a clip emerged of three Barcelona players being confronted by a metal railing, with each of them choosing to deal with the obstacle in a different way. While Jordi Alba continued to mooch along the suggested route and Luis Suárez dealt with the inconvenience by jumping over it, Lionel Messi could be seen scurrying under the barrier, like a small child setting off on an adventure at passport control, weaving through the legs and dividing lines and leaving his parents in a state of bewildered panic.

It was only when the third goal bulged West Brom’s net as this contest drifted into its final quarter, with Eden Hazard punching the air in celebration, that Chelsea could truly relax and bask in a restorative victory.

The Belgian had darted across the edge of the area away from a floundering Jonny Evans before ripping a shot inside Ben Foster’s near post. It was the kind of emphatic finish to breathe belief back into the ranks of the doubters.

65 min: Pardew looks totally winded on the touchline; he knows his West Brom team have not been dreadful tonight, without exactly being entirely convincing, either.

9.25pm GMT

Normal service resumed at Stamford Bridge. He rounds off a brilliant Chelsea move. He ran at a frantically back-peddling Gibbs before Fabregas’s neat flick lands at his feet via Dawson. Cue the acrobatic celebration. Chelsea are cruising now.

• Conte does not know how long striker will be out with back injury• Álvaro Morata a doubt for Champions League ties with Barcelona

Antonio Conte has admitted serious concerns over when Álvaro Morata will be fit to return from a troublesome back injury and cast doubt over the Spaniard’s involvement in Chelsea’s Champions League ties against Barcelona.

The club record signing, who cost an initial £58m from Real Madrid last summer and has scored 10 goals in 20 Premier League appearances, first complained of discomfort more than three weeks ago and has not featured since being sent off in extra time in the FA Cup third-round replay against Norwich in mid-January. Chelsea’s medical staff continue to explore different ways to treat the pain but Morata has failed to respond to the treatment.

Antonio Conte has no intention of resigning at Chelsea despite his team’s recent dismal run and expects to oversee the game against West Bromwich Albion next week, though the Italian has agreed to his players’ request for extra time off to recharge their batteries amid a draining schedule. The ailing champions endured a second successive three-goal defeat at Watford on Monday to leave the head coach, who was always expected to depart Stamford Bridge in the summer, battling to retain his position in the short term.

Chelsea have denied reports in Spain that their director Marina Granovskaia has met the former Barcelona manager Luis Enrique about succeeding Conte and insist it remains business as usual at the club despite only two wins in 10 games since the turn of the year.

Olivier Giroud sat behind the home dugout here, descending ever deeper into his new training coat as if attempting to hide from all he was witnessing. So much of this new start would have reminded him of his darker days at Arsenal. Only 24 hours previously he had been summoned from the bench in South Wales as his old team succumbed to Swansea, then the Premier League’s bottom club. Now, having been prised away by the champions, he endured having to watch his new side capitulate against another team apparently threatened by the drop.

The Frenchman was supposed to have left nights like this behind. Instead he shivered in disbelief as Chelsea succumbed to their worst home defeat since April 2016. Bournemouth were excellent, rugged when they needed to be and ruthless in a blistering spell after the break, and ended up running riot. Their first three-goal haul away to a top-six opponent must rank as their most startling top-flight victory, a game which exposes their previously lowly position as a deception.

• Michy Batshuayi set for Dortmund loan• Frenchman eyeing more starts with champions

Olivier Giroud is primed to join Chelsea from Arsenal in a deal worth £17.5m, which will pave the way for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to move from Borussia Dortmund to Arsenal. Michy Batshuayi is set to complete the interlocking transfers with a loan from Chelsea to Dortmund.

Romelu Lukaku is weighing in with some key contributions, Christian Benteke is not and Tottenham are showing how much weaker they are without Christian Eriksen

Sergio Agüero has had a curiosity of a campaign. He has been injured, benched and below par at times. He has been outscored by Raheem Sterling for much of the season. Yet his hat-trick on Saturday meant he has scored 20 goals for a fifth successive campaign. Further milestones await: Agüero is nine away from becoming the first man to score 200 for City. He is 11 behind his career-best tally of 33 and, with successive cup ties against Championship opponents, Bristol City and Cardiff, he has the chance to make further inroads before Gabriel Jesus is fit again. Besides the numbers, the encouraging element for City is that, after an autumnal slump, Agüero looks to have regained his sharpness. He produced purposeful, elusive dribbling, often a sign he is at his best. The sense is that he is relishing the responsibility of being the only available striker while Jesus is out. Richard Jolly